Eliot Remembered As Told to Martha Gies

eliotA Publication of Eliot Neighborhoodnews Association

volume 17 • number 2 fall 2008 Eliot Remembered As Told to Martha Gies

Emma Brown Jane Bachman mma and Finn Brown came move when they bought the houses ane Weber graduated from retired in 1952 he was Assistant Vice from Biloxi, Mississippi, to the out to build the coliseum. Grant in 1948, attended Uni- President. Then he went to work at Pacifi c Northwest by train, and versity of Oregon, where she the chancery offi ce [Archdiocese of E Q: Move where? J settled in Vancouver, Washington, in earned a Bachelor’s in General Arts Portland] and worked there as offi ce 1949, where their only child, Annie A: We moved from Benton two & Letters in 1952, then took a one- manager. His second retirement was Louise, was born at St. Joseph Hos- blocks on up to Hancock. It was a year post-graduate course in medi- in 1963, two years before he died. pital. Finn fi rst got a job working at big apartment house sitting right on cal records at Duke. Returning to a cannery; later, when he was hired the corner of Hancock. See what hap- Portland, she worked in the records Q: That’s the building that is now on at Rich Manufacturing in Port- pened, people had a big house they department at St. Vincent’s until she a cosmetology school. land, they moved across the river. made apartments and rented out. We and Don Bachman, whom she had A: Yes. When they closed this Emma went into domestic service had a kitchen in one room and a bed married in 1958, adopted their fi rst branch they built the one at Union with a family in Dunthorpe, with in the next room. That’s what people child. They had adopted two girls and Graham, that bank up there that’s whom she worked for more than two been for sale for a long time, that was decades. Widowed in 1978, Emma a First National. And then it moved Brown, has also outlived many of to where the Walgreen’s is now, down her clients. Today she is 84 and still on Broadway. And that was a First Na- working part time. tional. Always the same branch. Q: Do you remember what you Q: So your family lived in fi rst thought of the weather here, Irvington. the rain? A: On NE 14th and Knott. When A: I didn’t think much of it. I was Mother and Dad built their house, in used to the water. I used to work in 1912, you could see down to Union the oyster factory, where they shook Avenue. There wasn’t anything there, oysters. just a few houses here and there and Q: What did your husband do at pasture. Rich Manufacturing? Q: What other changes have you A: Well they made pipe, and he observed in the last seventy-five worked in the shipping department years, on this side of 7th Avenue? where he would load trucks and box- A: Union Avenue was a bustling cars, you know, when they shipped Emma Brown Jane Bachman place. Ann Palmer Bakery was on pipes out. NE corner of Brazee and Union. Dad Q: Where did you live when you had then. I think that street is took and a boy by the time they had three used to bring home bread and good- fi rst came to Portland? out now, Hancock. They have the daughters of their own. ies from there. The Egyptian Theater school district there now. was right across the street from the A: When we left Vancouver, we Q: Tell me about your father. stayed in an apartment until we bakery. That was a wonderful theater. Q: When you moved in, did you A: Fred Weber. He had been an of- New Song incorporated that, I think, bought this house. We lived near realize that they were going to move fi cer with the Hibernia Bank, which Interstate, on Benton Avenue, right into their church. And then there was you right back out? was downtown. And during the De- a big restaurant next to that. On the where the coliseum is sitting, there pression it closed. I believe that First was a street in there. That whole A: No. All down in there used to be corner which is now the Goldrush a lot of stores, used to be the drug- National sort of took it over, and put Café there was a drugstore. Then street is gone now. There used to be him out here at NE Union and Rus- houses all along there. We had to Continues on page 4 there were offi ces above that; I know sell. The bank building here looks there was a dentist’s offi ce. just the same as it did then. My fa- Eliot Neighborhood Website ther was the manager, but when he Continues on page 7 Now there is a website dedicated to the Eliot eliot neighborhood association neighborhood. Go to eliotneighborhood.org and ﬁ nd information about the Eliot Neighborhood The Eliot Neighborhood Association Board meets the Association, the “Eliot Guide”—your resource second Monday of each month. General membership for what is happening in Eliot, history of the meetings are held in April and October. neighborhood, recent news, and more. 7–9 p.m. Please Join Us!

ANNOUNCING Visit www.eliotneighborhood.org today! Emanuel Hospital, 501 N. Graham St. Medical Offi ce Building, West Conference Room eliot neighborhood association U Editor’s Note By Tony Green The Eliot Neighborhood Association (ENDA) is a nonprofit corporation whose members are the residents and business owners of the Eliot Neigh- borhood. Its purpose is to inform Eliot residents about issues affecting the neighborhood through meetings, newsletters and other activities. Members of the neighborhood association must be over 14 years old and I hate the new recycling bins. live, own property, have a business, or represent a nonprofit within the I didn ’t think I would. neighborhood. The Eliot Neighborhood Association was founded in 1969. It is recognized by the City of Portland, is a member of the Northeast They are too big. They don’t fi t where we used to keep our recycling and garbage. Coalition of Neighborhoods, Inc., and has representatives on several other The garbage can doesn’t fi t anymore. Neither does the bucket for the glass. groups and committees. The wheels are an improvement. So are the hinged lids. But that doesn’t outweigh their enormity. 2008–2009 enda board members The size is just part of my problem with the new recycling bins. I am unhappy about something more fundamental: no more sorting (except glass). Chair Gary Hampton, 503.282.5429, [email protected] It is driving me crazy to mix plastics, metal, paper and newspaper. I have Vice Chair Clint Lundmark, [email protected] been dutifully separating them for years and years because that’s what the city Treasurer Kirsten Jenkins, 503.515.6633, told me to do. [email protected] How can it be that suddenly it’s no longer necessary? Recorder Julia Peters, Volunteers of America Was the city just putting me on all these years? Newsletter Editor Tony Green, 503.221.8202, [email protected] Is this an employment program for recycling sorters? Eric Aronson, 503.282.4126, [email protected] When I was growing up, we just threw everything into one large can. That’s Howie Bierbaum, The Wonder Ballroom what it felt like the fi rst time I used the new recycling bins. 503.284.8686, [email protected] It was upsetting. Pauline Bradford, 503.287.7138 It was so upsetting I asked my wife if she would take care of it the next week. Brian Fugate Co-board Members Matt Gilley and Vickie Walker 503.233.0929, [email protected] or [email protected] eliot neighborhood association Pete Helzer, Portland Police Fall General Membership Meeting Jim Hlava, Cascadia Behavioral Mental Health Eliot neighbors, please join us for an Eliot Neigborhood Association Board meeting. Find out about what’s new in the neighborhood and how you Joan Ivan can be involved. Aurora Lora, Harriet Tubman Leadership Academy Monday, October 13, 2008 • 7–9 p.m. • Emanuel Hospital, Naomi Sacks 501 N. Graham St. • Medical Offi ce Building, West Conference Room Laurie Simpson, 503.280.1005, [email protected] Agenda Co-board Members Jennifer and Ryan Wilson 7:00 PM BOARD ELECTIONS Co-board Members Chris Yeargers and Marie D’Hulst All positions on Eliot’s general board are open if you live or have a busi- 503.284.4392, [email protected] or [email protected] ness in the Eliot Neighborhood boundries you can be elected to the board. 7:15 PM NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS • Introduction and sharing • Approval of minutes 2008 2008–2009 enda land use committee • Announcement Chair Mike Warwick • Public Comment 503.417.7555/503.284.7010, [email protected] 7:25 PM COMMITTEE REPORTS Vice Chair Clint Lundmark, [email protected] • Land Use Pauline Bradford • Treasurer Report Carol Kennedy Pauline Bradford, 503.287.7138 • Newsletter Editor Tony Green Matt Gilley, 503.233.0929, [email protected] 7:35 PM COMMUNITY POLICING Offi cer Pete Helzer will be updating Eliot residence on crime in our Gary Hampton, 503.282.5429, [email protected] neighborhood. Kirsten Jenkins, 503.515.6633, [email protected] 7:40 PM PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE Laurie Simpson, 503.282.1005, [email protected] Dr. Algie Gatewood, President of Cascade Campus of PCC, to discuss the PCC Bond Measure that will be on the ballot in November. 8:00 PM TRI MET Tom Mills, Service Planning & Scheduling, will discuss with our neighborhood association about possible changes to the bus system that would eliot monthly meetings occur next May, specifi cally, about the Line 6—Martin Luther King Blvd. 8:45 PM PUBLIC COMMENT If you live or work in Eliot, you are welcome and encouraged to attend the monthly meetings of the Eliot Neighborhood Association, which are held 8:50 PM ADJOURN the second Monday of each month at Emanuel Hospital. It’s a great opportunity to meet your neighbors, stay informed about what’s going on in Eliot, help build a stronger community, and have input into decisions that may affect you. Also consider joining a committee or becoming a board member (we have vacancies). eliot news ad rates Emanuel Hospital, 501 N. Graham St., Medical Office Building West Eliot News has a per issue circulation of 3,000 and is hand-delivered or Conference Room mailed to nearly 100% of the homes and businesses in the Eliot neighborhood. It is also distributed to residents and businesses in surrounding neighborhoods, including Irvington, Sabin and Boise. Eliot News is an 8-page tabloid (11" x 17") newspaper and is published four eliot news is published four times a year by the Eliot Neighborhood times a year. Ad deadlines are March 1, June 1, Sept. 1, Dec. 1. Association. It is delivered or mailed free of charge to every address in the neighborhood. It does not have a ISBN. CATEGORY SIZE (H X W) 1x 2x 3x 4x 1/16 page 2.25" x 5" $ 25 $ 42 $ 63 $ 84 Editor: Tony Green, 503.221.8202 • [email protected] 1/8 page 4.5" x 5" $ 37 $ 68 $ 97 $ 122 Layout: Peter Donley • 503.348.5389 • [email protected] 1/4 page 8.25" x 5" $ 58 $ 108 $ 154 $ 194 Advertising: [email protected] 1/2 page 8.25" x 10.25" $ 105 $ 195 $ 277 $ 349 Delivery Coordinator: [email protected] Full page 16.25" x 10.25" $ 188 $ 353 $ 502 $ 632

Rights to articles are retained by the author. Opinions of the authors do not Please make checks out to Eliot Neighborhood Association and mail to: necessarily reflect the official positions of the Eliot Neighborhood Association Susan Bailey, 535 N.E. Thompson St., Portland, OR 97212. Questions? Call Tony Green at 503.221.8202 or email [email protected]

2 eliot news By Mike Warwick B Around the Neighborhood estate on MLK. Their purchase and use the current facility in Eliot. We have of this site was opposed by Eliot because established a good working relationship riting this column about land ing in Eliot is part of the process, there we have 2 similar facilities within about with Cascadia and some of the potential use issues in our neighbor- will be active outreach by the Eliot 6 blocks of this site and are saturated alternative providers are not as neigh- W hood tends to get my dander Board and Land Use Committee. with providers of services to low-income borhood friendly as Cascadia. A “devil up because our neighborhood seems The Streetcar Plan—It should be ob- and special needs populations, the vase you know” argument would be to help to bear the brunt of some poor land vious to anyone that we can no longer majority of which are NOT from Eliot. Cascadia keep their clinic in Eliot since use policies and decisions. The prob- assume fuel for our vehicles will be in- We believe these communities are best the operation is unlikely to relocate and lem with that is that I want to discuss expensive or necessarily available in the served where THEY live, and shouldn’t they have been good neighbors. more issue in more detail than space future. As a result, the City is planning be imported into Eliot. We lost that Thanks to those of you who com- in this column allows. I have been en- for more mass transit. Portland is fortu- battle (again). However, Cascadia’s fi - mented to me about the last column. In couraged therefore, to participate in the nate to have both a newer transit system nancial problems may result in some of it I argued that most of the urban infi ll Eliot web site land use blog to supple- and multiple transit options in the form the clinics at their Eliot location being projects we have seen have wrapped ment the column and to provide more of buses, light rail, and streetcar. Most shut down or transferred to another pro- themselves in the “green” fl ag despite timely news. I haven’t blogged before, other city transit systems are being over- vider. Cascadia wants to prevent that, the fact the developers clear cut the so you may have to bear with me. As whelmed with riders as people switch obviously. They are organizing a com- lots before building and cover the en- a result, I am going to try to just pres- from autos to transit. The City intends munity show of support. This is ironic tire surface the structures and paving ent highlights of current land use and to plan for more transit for the future. since THIS community didn’t support instead of providing “real” greenery. transportation issues here and provide The Streetcar Plan is part of that effort. them to start with. However, if we can Reusing existing structures is the real more background, detail, and discus- While Tri-Met is the primary provider fi gure out where their community sup- path to green building. That point was sion on the web site, which is http:// of transit in Portland, the Streetcar is a port is coming from, perhaps we can reinforced by a presentation at the Ar- www.eliotneighborhood.org/. creation of the City, not Tri-Met. As a encourage them to relocate these ser- chitectural Heritage Society a few weeks There are several planning activities result, the City is taking the lead to plan vices THERE! Regardless, it is likely later. For more on this or any of the that the City or Metro have launched that possible future routes for Streetcar. This that the County will shift Cascadia’s above topics, visit the Eliot Neighbor- will change the way Portland and Eliot has many people confused and opposi- services to another provider who will, hood web page at http://www.eliot- look in the future. These are in addition to tion to the process has surfaced, in part in turn, take over their ownership of neighborhood.org/. the usual infi ll development projects and because the City handpicked “commu- new construction we routinely see. Here nity representatives” instead of using is a quick run down on all of these. the existing neighborhood association BAILEY & WARWICK Columbia River Crossing (new I-5 process. Sadly, this is typical of the cur- bridge)—This project will double the rent City Administration who appears Saving and Improving Housing in Eliot number of traffi c lanes across the Co- to want to control the advice it gets so lumbia primarily to speed Vancouver it can do as it pleases. Hopefully the Neighborhood for 25 Years. commuters. It will be the largest, most new Mayor and Council will be more Houses and Apartments for rent. expensive public works project in Or- open minded (although I have no hope egon, ever, costing at least $4 Billion, for Randy). The Streetcar plan will only (503) 806-3502 which works out to over $6,000 per identify potential routes. Construction Portland resident. Oregonians will pay on any of these will be years if not de- the lion’s share of project costs, despite cades away and won’t proceed without the fact Vancouver is the benefi ciary. The public input. Two routes have been iden- project is being promoted by our Gover- tifi ed in Eliot, one along MLK the other nor, City Council, and Metro, although if using the Vancouver/Williams couplet. you “follow the money” the real powers That latter is preferred by Transporta- behind this are the trucking companies tion engineers while the MLK route is and unions. Vancouverites are at best favored by everyone else. lukewarm to the whole idea, although Rose Quarter Plan—This isn’t a for- their Mayor supports in the hope it will mal or offi cial planning process, or fi nally make Vancouver a “real” city in- probably even an open process, but stead of just a suburb. That will take AActivective LListingsistings bed bath sq ft price the owners of the Rose Quarter have 526 NE Graham 2 2 1,360 $249,000 more than a bridge I think. Promoters say announced that they are developing a 78 NE Monroe 3 1.1 1,905 $280,000 the project won’t increase traffi c, just re- 14 NE Monroe 3 1.1 1,316 $309,000 development plan that should be com- 438 NE Fargo 3 2.1 1,290 $315,000 duce congestion during rush hour. That pleted in about a year. They need to be 54 NE Sacramento 3 1 2,569 $319,000 means, they say, it won’t increase pollu- doing this to protect their interests dur- 110 NE Hancock 2 1 1,800 $319,900 tion along I-5 as it passes through Eliot. 104 NE San Rafael 3 2.1 1,787 $324,975 ing the Portland Plan process at mini- 130 NE Morris 3 3 2,208 $349,900 That, of course, is hogwash. mum, but whatever they decide will 126 NE Fargo 3 1 2,072 $349,900 The Portland Plan—I am willing to affect Eliot. News from them is sparse so 2841 NE Rodney 3 2.1 1,744 $369,000 2728 NE 7th 4 1 2,912 $415,000 debate the “City that Works” slogan, far, but they seem to be favoring a sports 2134 NE 7th 3 2 3,279 $429,000 but I will agree Portland it the “City oriented development scheme. 608 NE San Rafael 3 2 2,006 $469,000 2602 NE 7th 4 2 2,736 $495,000 that Plans.” Or at least holds a lot of Emanuel Expansion—Legacy is ex- planning meetings. The Portland Plan panding the Children’s hospital. That PPendingending LListingsistings bed bath sq ft price will update the last City plan, which 2633 NE 7th #4 2 2.1 1,285 $349,000 will include construction of a parking 71 NE San Rafael 3 1.1 2,501 $429,500 has directed development for the past structure to replace the parking lost to decade plus. It will focus on the Cen- the new hospital wing. The new lot will SSoldold LListingsistings bed bath sq ft price tral City, part of which is in Eliot (lower 2737 NE 7th 2 2 1,302 $290,000 be across from Dawson Park. Construc- 427 NE Monroe 3 1.1 2,242 $315,000 Albina) and there are proposals (which tion will probably start towards the end 2403 NE 7th 4 2.1 2,397 $424,900 Eliot supports) to include more of Eliot, of this year and be complete by next 56 NE Fargo 4 2 3,541 $589,000 especially the area neat the Rose Quar- summer. The hospital tower will be 7 ter. In addition to changing zoning, the stories and the largest structure on their Plan will also revise zones, meaning it campus and in Eliot. The design and will change what is allowed in existing construction schedules for that aren’t zones or redefi ne them. That is sorely fi nal yet. needed in light of the shift to develop- Cascadia’s Future—The paper has ment of mixed residential and com- covered the fi nancial implosion of Cas- mercial uses on the same land. This cadia Behavioral Healthcare if depth, process is expected to take the better but we have heard little from Cascadia part of 3 years and there will be plenty itself about its future in Eliot. They cur- of meetings before it is all done. If zon- rently own about ½ block of prime real fall 2008 3 EMMA BROWN, from page 1 store, used to be a Safeway, before they ize on Williams and Russell? Q: You once told me that the house and fi re trucks everywhere and there put in the freeway. All kind of shop- A: They had a drugstore there, a I live in now was fi rebombed back in was dogs all around and people going ping, a little grocery store where they cleaners. They had a nice meat place; the early seventies. around houses with lights. You know had vegetables. I used to love to get meat there. And A: Yes, yes. There was a guy lived how fi recracker smoke smells: that’s how it smelled. Q: Were people angry about the if I saw some vegetables, something I in your house, everybody called him move? liked, you know, I would go there. They Poop. They said he was into drugs, And this man they called Poop—he used to have what they called like the you know. called everybody Poop cause that’s what A: Some of the people, I’m sure, they old market, everything out where you’d It used to be an apartment in the people called him—he said “Somebody didn’t want to give up their homes. All see all the vegetables. threw a bomb in here, Poop.” down in there where the coliseum is back, where your deck is, and the ga- sitting, the Rose Garden, clear up to the Q: Did you have a doctor in the rage sat in the front. Okay. Poop he had Q: So he wasn’t in the room that got Convention Center, was where peoples neighborhood? a guy lived back there called J.D. J.D. fi rebombed? all used to live. They got rid of their was sort of a handy man; he would do A: I had two doctors in the neighbor- things for people, haul trash away or A: When the person threw the bomb, homes for maybe a little or nothing. hood. Course they are both gone now. Poop was on the phone in the hallway, We didn’t own a home, so I don’t know whatever you wanted him to do. That’s I had a Black doctor who used to be how he lived. where the phone was. It tore the garage what people sold their homes for. here called Dr. Brown. And I also had down. And in this back part of the And somehow, I don’t know exact- Q: Where did those people go? another doctor, when we fi rst moved house where J.D. was in bed, he was over here, was called Dr. Marshall. I ly what happened, but the night the covered with glass, but he didn’t get a A: Most of those people now are never went to Dr. Unthank. They say bomb was throwed in, we had went scratch on him. That was lucky. But the gone. Those people I knew then, all he was a good doctor; I knew a lot of to bed. I don’t remember what time it bomb was meant for Poop. He didn’t those people has passed on. people went to him, but I just never, was, but somehow we woke up and we stay in that house after the bombing. could smell smoke. I thought the hot Q: Then you bought on Rodney you know. He left and he bought a house way up water heater had blew up. So I jumped Avenue? on Williams Avenue. Q: Where did you go to church? up out of bed, ran downstairs, and I A: Yes. We had looked for a long time. A: This church right down here, Mt. got down there and I found out the hot Q: So now the neighborhood has When we bought this house, we bought Olivet. It’s an old church. We moved water heater wasn’t blown up. changed again. it from Mr. Francis. He was a white man. out when we got a new preacher be- I ran back upstairs and I said to my A: Well, I would say, yeah. Because Mr. Francis and his wife had moved to a cause the church had grown too much husband, “There’s lights fl ashing out- most of all the Blacks has moved out. retirement home. They said he worked and it didn’t hold the people. But the side.” And I went to what I thought on the railroad. He has tags up in the Q: Where did they go? preacher when I joined Mt. Olivet was was the window, and I stuck my head basement – like the tags from off your Reverend Clow. And then Reverend out the window and realized I was out A: They’re scattered around. I think a car—that’s been there ever since 1924. Jackson came and he was an all-around the window. My head was out the win- lot of people is out in Beaverton, some This house use to be the voting preacher. Whatever came up in Port- dow! I said, “Well, there’s no window is out in Oswego, some is southeast. house, where people could come to land, he was in it, you know. He was in here!” All these windows were gone Gresham, there’s a lot of Blacks in vote. At that time you went to houses to the marches and stuff like that. but I didn’t know that because I didn’t Gresham now. They’s just all around. vote. And this dining room was where turn any light on. It was police cars Continues on back page they set up the booths. I don’t know Q: And were you in the marches? how many booths they set up or how- A: No. You know, most of the stuff ever they done it, but this house used to that happened, whenever the marches have a swing on the porch, and people were, I was working. I worked for a would wait on the porch until the other private family, and I worked fi ve days fellow fi nished and they would come a week. in and do the same. Mrs. Turner, the white lady lived next door in the big Q: That was when you worked for house, she told me the history of her Dr. Dowsett? house and this house. A: Yes. He was the head doctor at Emanuel Hospital, and his wife was Q: What was this neighborhood like home and they had two boys. And I when you moved here? was the maid. They lived out in Dun- A: Quite a few Blacks lived in here. thorpe and I was there fi ve days a week. When we moved in here, then I guess I came home at night. people were selling out to Blacks. This is as far as you could go; you couldn’t go Q: When did you start working for across Union Avenue at that time. that family? A: When I was 24 years old. I worked Q: Where did your daughter go to for them about twenty-some years. My school? husband passed away, I kept on work- A: Eliot, over here on Flint. [Today, ing for them. Then they moved from Tubman Middle School.] Dunthorpe to King Tower in the West Hills, from the West Hills to Char- Q: Then Jefferson? bonneau, in Wilsonville, and I went A: No, she went to Washington High to Charbonneau on the bus. Then Dr. School, which is no more. Dowsett got sick, he passed away. Mrs. Dowsett got married again and moved Q: Where would you shop for to Palm Springs. And she said, “You’re groceries? going to Palm Springs.” And I said, A: Safeway used to be on Union Av- “No, I’m not going to Palm Springs.” enue, right off of Sacramento. When And she said, “Well, what am I go- they closed that one, they put it up on ing to do?” I said, “Well, you’ll fi nd Broadway. I don’t like the [new] store somebody in Palm Springs. I can’t go at all. When they remodeled it, that’s to Palm Springs.” when the whole thing changed. It used to be a pretty good store. Every time Q: Drugs used to be a problem in the I go there, it’s something I buy all the neighborhood? time, it’s gone up! A: Now that’s something I never knew too much about. Because I was Q: What businesses did you patron- never around it.

4 eliot news Eliot: A Brief Chronology

1874 East bank port town of Albina incorporated, boundaries similar to today’s Eliot neighborhood. 1891 Albina, now stretching north to Columbia Boulevard, annexed to City of Portland. 1912 Albina Branch of the Multnomah County Library, opens on NE Knott Street, a Carnegie library designed in the Spanish Renaissance style. 1915 Emanuel Hospital, founded three years earlier on SW Taylor Street, moved to present site. 1919 Code of “ethics” established by Realty Board makes realtors subject to dismissal if they sell to ethnic mi- norities outside of designated areas. 1924 Egyptian Theater [2517 NE Union] built, used for vaudeville until the 1930s when it switches to movies. Closed in 1962, it is used as a warehouse, and later incorporated into New Song Community Church, which Egyptian Theater, 1933. opened in Eliot in 1998. Photo: Eliot Neighborhood website 1929 Dr. DeNorval Unthank (1899-1977) recruited out of Howard University Medical School to come to Portland because the city needed a Black doctor. A tireless physician and civil rights leader, Unthank was named Doctor of the Year by the Oregon Medical Society in 1958. 1943 Vanport, the largest public housing project in the nation, is constructed south of the Columbia River (today Delta Park) to house workers at Portland’s wartime shipyards. 1945 Vanport population reaches high of nearly 40,000, about one-fi fth of them Black. 1948 Vanport Flood: on Memorial Day, Columbia River breaks through railroad embankment and fl oods housing project, displacing 17,000 people, most of them poor families left unemployed after the shipyard layoffs. 1948 The YWCA (built in 1926 as the “Colored YWCA”) serves 515 meals a day during the summer to families displaced by Vanport . (This building today is the Elks Lodge at 9 N Tillamook.) 1950 Black families live in all but one of Portland’s 61 census tracts, though nearly half are within restricted Vanport Housing Project, 1943. area in North/Northeast (Oregon Street to Fremont, Interstate to Union). Photo: Housing Authority of Portland 1953 Oregon Legislature passes civil rights bill prohibiting discrimination at hotels, restaurants, theaters, swim- ming pools, etc. Mark Hatfi eld, then 30 and serving 2nd term in House of Representatives, credited for blocking referendum which had defeated this bill in the past. 1958 Last of Portland streetcars stop running when interurban service between Portland and Oregon City ceases. The cars serving Eliot had been gone since 1950. 1960 Memorial Coliseum construction fi nished; 476 housing units were demolished on site, along with historic Bethel AME Church and many Black-owned businesses. The commercial center of the Black neighborhood shifts north to Williams Avenue and Russell Street. 1964 Work completed on “Minnesota Freeway,” I-5 along the east bank of the Willamette River, displacing an other 300 people, many of whom move east and north, out of Eliot. 1968 Portland Development Commission’s controversial Model Cities program gets underway, devising plans for eight neighborhoods in Albina. At this time, Eliot gets boundaries and a name—for the Eliot School, on N Vanport debris after 1948 fl ood. Flint. Photo: Portland Fire Bureau 1969 Portland Chapter of Black Panther Party opens free health and dental clinics in Eliot and operates them for ten years. 1970 Albina Neighborhood Improvement Plan acquires funding to improve streets, create parks, plant trees, and provide loans to rehabilitate 1,600 housing units. Despite major neighbor-hood efforts, PDC declines to expand the successful program into other Albina neighborhoods, describing them as “too dilapidated.” 1973 Residents and business owners are required to move to make way for 19-acre Emanuel Hospital expansion. Federal grant for hospital expansion never came through, leaving empty lots along Williams and Vancouver Avenues above Russell. 1987 Death of civil rights leader Rev. John Jackson, long-time pastor of Mt Olivet Baptist. Church relocates to larger property, leaving undecided the historic church building. Originally located at NW Everett and Broad- way, the new church was built on the corner of NE Schuyler and 1st Avenue in 1921, at a time when Black congregations were moving east of the river. Memorial Coliseum under construction, 1960. 1989 NE Union Avenue changed to NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Photo: City of Portland 1993 City Council adopts Albina Community Plan, conceived by the city to “revitalize” Albina neighborhoods. It leads to successive waves of gentrifi cation, viewed by many as a victim of its own success. Design guide- lines are also adopted to protect and enhance historic and architectural features of seven Albina areas, including Eliot, though results prove disappointing as modern infi ll development sweeps through. 1996 City Center Self-Storage, on the east side of MLK between Russell and Knott, burns in a 30-foot blaze. The building had been in the Lampus family since 1921, as a restaurant, a department store, and fi nally a storage business. For most of the people renting the 321 storage units, the fi re means a complete loss, as few have insurance. 1998 Defeat of local funding for South/North light rail that would have demolished dozens of houses in Eliot, as well as Boise and Humboldt. Tri-Met moves proposed light rail to Interstate Avenue, whereupon Eliot and other Albina neighborhoods successfully lobby for no public condemnation in the Interstate Urban Renewal Plan, a fi rst for urban renewal. 2001 The Cleo-Lillian Social Club, one of the last vestiges of the once-vibrant African-American business and club district along North Williams Avenue (at 3041 N. Williams), is forced to close, following neighbors’ com- plaints of noise. Bobby Bradford and Cleve Williams, 1950s. 2007 Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, at 106 NE Ivy Street, is destroyed by a four-alarm fi re that began in Frequent performers at the Cotton the sanctuary of the 1920 structure. Club on N Vancouver Avenue. Compiled by Martha Gies with help from historic preservation activist Cathy Galbraith, Executive Director, Bosco Milligan Foundation.

fall 2008 5 eliot eateries Breakfast/Coﬀ ee/Cafés Bridges Café 2716 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-288-4169 Eliot E-Mat Café 2808 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-280-8889 Goldrush Coffee Bar 2601 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-331-5955 Tiny’s Café 2031 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-467-4199 Waypost 3120 N. Williams St.

Bars/Taverns 820 820 N. Russell St., 503-284-5518 Alu 2831 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd., 503-ALU-WINE Bill Ray’s Dive 2210 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. Gotham Tavern 2240 N. Interstate Ave. McGinns Russell Street Wine Merchants 807 N. Russell St. McMenamin’s White Eagle Café & Saloon 836 N. Russell St., 503-282-6810 Sloan’s Tavern 36 N. Russell St., 503-287-2262 Waypost 3120 N. Williams St. Widmer Gasthaus Pub 929 N. Russell St., 503-281-3333

Lunch/Dinner Café Wonder 128 N.E. Russell St., 503-493-0371 Chuck’s Market, J&S Grocery 2415 N. Williams Ave. 503-281-6269 Echo 2225 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd., 503-460-3246 Mint 816 N. Russell St., 503-284-5518 Pizza A Go Go 3240 N. Williams St., 503-335-0300 Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken 3120 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-281-8455 Queen of Sheba 2413 N.E. MLK Jr. Blvd. 503-287-6302 Russell Street Bar-Be-Que 325 N.E. Russell St., 503-528-8224 Sparky’s Pizza 2434 N.E. MLK Jr Blvd Toro Bravo 120 NE Russell St., 503-281-4464 Tropicana Bar Be Cue 3217 N. Williams Ave. 503-281-8696 Venue Cuban Habana and Salsa Bar 2808 N.E. MLK Jr Blvd

6 eliot news JANE BACHMAN, from page 1 Phone (503) 281-1238 CCB0040364 What used to be the morgue was Grant was snob. It was the Alameda formerly Pearson’s Funeral Home. On group that sort of ran Grant. They Knott Street, on the south side of the were the wealthy. street there, between 7th and Union, there was a barber shop, Sakelaris. We Q: Would you call your family did all our business with Irv Lind Flo- wealthy. rist down there where Bridges Restau- A: No, not at all. Banking was not a rant is now, on the corner there. There very lucrative business. was a nice little grocery store on NE 434 N. Tillamook Street Q: Where did your family go to 7th and Knott, on the NW corner. A Portland, Oregon 97227 church? good meat market there. Dad would walk home for lunch from the bank A: The Madeleine. We were not far and if we needed anything from the from the parish boundary line, NE grocery store, he would pick it up on 14th, I think, the west side of the street. the way. We went to Immaculate Heart once in awhile. It was a little church and I en- Weimer’s Hardware was three or joyed the closeness of it. Immaculate four blocks up the street, and boy they Heart was more ethnically diverse than had everything. You didn’t have to the Madeleine, Black and white. go downtown except for clothes. We didn’t much get off of Union Avenue— Q: So when you were a kid, there to me it still is Union Avenue. wasn’t a Black community here? Q: Where did you personally go? A: No, not really. Cause, let’s see, I would have graduated in ‘44 from Ir- A: Well, the Egyptian Theater. And vington, and the Blacks, the younger where the Title Wave is now was the ones, were just starting to come in. Albina Library then. It was my library. A good once a month I’d meet my fa- Q: Before the Vanport Flood? ther at the bank and go down to the A: A little bit. They lived mostly library. It was an enjoyable place and down across Union or right close to I always felt at home there. it. The Black neighborhood was 7th I’d go downtown on the bus or the Avenue and west. streetcar. On 15th and Knott was the There was an Asian couple who Irvington Streetcar. And then there owned one of the restaurants in Hol- was also a bus that went down Knott. lywood and lived in the Grant district. I felt very much at home. But their child went to Grant for about Q: Were there other commercial two weeks and was so miserable that pockets besides Union? they transferred her. That was before I was there. It was just passed down A: The closest would be Broadway to me, when we were talking with or Fremont. some teachers at one time. And these Q: What about Williams and Rus- people had a real big Chinese res- sell? Did you ever get that far from taurant in Hollywood. They lived in your house? Irvington, right on Knott, up about A: Not too much. I would, of course, 20th-something, in one of those nice go to the hospital down there periodi- homes. And yet their daughter wasn’t cally. As a matter of fact, I was born good enough. there at Emanuel. And I’d go to make And Dr. Unthank, his son tried to hospital visits to friends. go to Grant. This was before my time Of course, Dad would always come there, but they made life so miserable down in here. He had all the busi- for them. They were told they were nesses as customers. not welcome. When I was a little kid we thought Pretty soon there’s not going to be a these were the poor people down in black and a white. Which is fi ne. I’ve this neighborhood. It was a worker got a mixed-race grandson. I keep neighborhood. But I think the reason telling my daughter-in-law to please that I never got down this far was that teach Andrew the Tagalog language. my schoolmates lived the other way. Because his grandparents on the These kids were not in school with us. other side speak very little English. I They went to Eliot and then to high don’t care what nationality you are, I school at Jefferson. I went to Irvington think you should keep up that second and then to Grant. Grant and Jeffer- language. son were rivals: we had a rivalry to see Q: So you moved out of the neigh- who could sell the most student body borhood in what year? cards. At that time, in order to support A: When I got married, 1958. We your school and get into activities, you lived on Clarendon, out in North bought a student body card. Portland, 20-some-odd years. And Let’s face it, Grant was snobby. Sort we moved from there to where we are of like what people think now of Lin- now, on North Fowler, and we’ve been coln. Now earned or not, it’s consid- there for 27 years. ered very prestigious, privileged. And that’s how Grant was. And it isn’t any- Q: What year did you go back to more, cause they’ve got regular people work? going there now and different nation- alities. But that was what Grant was. Continues on back page

fall 2008 7 JANE BACHMAN, from page 7 Friends of Trees Planting in Eliot

A: About 25 years ago or so. I worked MLK, where the European Institute of n partnership with Friends of Trees, of the tree includes the planting permit, for Custom Hospital Products. I was Cosmetology has been since 2004. We Eliot Neighborhood is planning hole digging, planting by trained volun- offi ce manager. And then I quit there walked in, and Jane was delighted to I a tree planting project for Febru- teers, stakes, mulch, ties, labels, infor- after eight years and went to Kaiser. I see that the people who have the cos- ary 14! Join us to help plant trees and mation on proper care, and follow-up was making clinic appointments. And metology school had stripped the ﬂ oor create a healthier community! monitoring. All participants are asked then quit then in 1996. I was off for back to the original marble tile, and Did you know that a typical tree re- to help plant trees on planting day or a couple of months and then I started that the bank vault remains, today in moves 10 pounds of pollutants each year? volunteer in some other capacity. volunteering at Title Wave in ‘96. use as a private room for facials.] Two average sized trees can supply a Visit www.friendsoftrees.org and person’s oxygen needs. Trees can reduce Q: Right back in Eliot. How did that click on the “Order Street and Yard heating and cooling costs by 15–30%! happen? Trees” button to sign up. Follow the Houses on tree-lined streets sell for up instructions to setup your on-line ac- A: I saw the sign out front and I EMMA BROWN, from page 4 to 20% more. Neighborhoods with more count. After you sign up, Friends of thought, I’ll go in and see what they’ve Q: Why did the neighborhood trees tend to be safer with less crime. Trees will schedule a site inspection got. I went in and everybody was so disperse? Trees also help intercept and retain 760 by Urban Forestry to ensure you get friendly and nice and I went back gallons of rainwater each year, keeping A: I don’t know. Some people move the right tree for the planting location. several times. I decided that when I our rivers clean. By planting trees we can out because they want to move out. Once the inspection is complete you retired that was where I was going to make our neighborhood and city a much The people lived next door to me, can log back in to select your trees. volunteer. Nancy Powell and her husband, they better place to live. For more information visit www. [NOTE: One day in May, Jane moved when Mr. Powell got ill. Some Neighbors can purchase street trees friendsoftrees.org, send email to trees@ Bachman walked me along her old women fi gured they couldn’t take care for just $30 and yard trees for $60. The eliotneighborhood.org, or contact Clint childhood route between her father’s of the house, they couldn’t do all the deadline to sign up is December 15. Trees at 503-552-8678. bank and her family home, that is, up work, so they got an apartment. Or will be planted on February 14. The cost and down Knott, from MLK to NE 14th they couldn’t take care of the yard. I and back. The First National Bank say it isn’t too many women likes to get was housed in the building at 2540 NE out in the yard and dig like I do.

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